Waiting Out The Rain
by OddEnthusiasms
Summary: Someone is involved in an accident, and life is anything but normal. Mostly gen. with slight AJ and BB. XPosted to LJ. Reviews are my life.


A/N: This has already been posted over on LJ, but I figured it would be a good story to stick up over here, too. I'd love to hear what you guys think!

Waiting Out The Rain  
Chapter One

She'd had a few drinks, and the rain was falling heavily. She knew she shouldn't have driven, but she did anyways. There was something about the atmosphere at a party that made you feel invincible, and when the good-looking males tell you you're an amazing dancer, you start to believe you're also an amazing driver.

She wasn't expecting to crash. One minute, she had sped up to make the yellow light, the next, the car was hydro-planing and no matter how hard she slammed on the breaks, it wouldn't stop. The car broke through the guardrail and flew down the embankment, stopping only when it collided with the tree.

There was screaming, she knew, and the sensation of pain shooting through her body. She didn't realize that the screaming ended at the same time her conscious thought did, leaving her in a silent, black void.

* * *

In the dark, Jack Hodgins groped around for his ringing phone. He put it to his ear. "Hello?" he asked groggily.

"Jack, it's Temperance." Brennan's voice sounded strained.

"Brennan, why are you calling me at-" Jack squinted at his clock. "-Three o'clock in the morning?"

"It's Angela."

He sat up quickly. "What happened?"

"I don't know exactly, but she was in a car accident of some sort. I'm at the hospital now, but-" She let out a shaky breath of air. "-They haven't told me anything yet."

"Washington General?"

"Ya."

"I'll be right there."

Jack was out of bed by the time Brennan said "Alright," and hung up. He dialed another number on the phone as he pulled on the jeans he'd thrown on the dresser.

"What do you want, Hodgins?"

He didn't even bother to wonder how Zach knew it was him. "Get dressed, Zach."

"Why?" Zach asked, sounding annoyed.

Jack tucked the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he pulled a t-shirt out of a drawer. "Angela was in an accident."

Zach tried to hide his gasp. "I'll be ready in fifteen minutes."

"You'd better make it ten."

* * *

Within fifteen minutes, Jack and Zach were on the road.

"The speed limit's 60."

"Shut up, Zach." His tone was warning enough, Zach remained silent the rest of the trip.

Jack pulled into the hospital parking lot, not caring where he parked, then rushing Zach to the Emergency Room doors. The first thing he saw in the lobby was Brennan, pacing quickly.

"How is she?" He asked, noticing Booth and Cam on the seats behind her.

Brennan shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I still don't know anything."

"Because they won't tell you anything, or just because they haven't?"

"Hodgins," Booth said warningly.

"No one's left the room she's in yet."

Jack nodded once. "Good." Both he and Zach sat down beside Booth and Cam, but Brennan continued her pacing.

"Bones," Booth said gently. "Why don't you sit down?"

"No."

"Simmer down, wearing a hole in the rug isn't going to make the doctors work any faster."

"Please, Booth, do not tell me to 'simmer down'. Not today," Brennan said, her tone matching her icy glare.

"Dr. Brennan, Booth has a point," Zach said, "The longer there are constantly doctors attending to Angela, the higher her chance of survival."

"Geeze, Zach, try sensitivity," Booth scolded softly.

Brennnan took a deep breath. "No, Zach's right. We have to remain rational. She's been in there long enough that she wasn't dead-on-arrival, but not so long as to think there's no hope. She's still in the appropriate time range for a critical car-crash victim."

"Exactly," Zach agreed. "In fact, the current length of our wait is average."

"So we shouldn't worry." Brennan was teetering between rational scientist and hysterical best friend.

"If a doctor were to have come out earlier, it would likely have been to dispel any chance of survival," Zach said, "Statistically speaking-"

Jack cut him off, standing up. "What the hell is the matter with you two?" He waved a hand towards the hallway. "Angela is in there, dying, and all you can think about is science and figures. This isn't just some person, it's Angela we're talking about here. Is that all she is to you? A statistic? A number?" When the other four didn't answer him, Jack shook his head and stormed away.

"One of us should go..." Zach trailed off.

"I'll do it," Booth said, standing up. Brennan dropped her gaze when he walked past her, heading the way the entomologist had just gone.

Booth found Jack outside the Emergency Room doors, staring out into the rain-soaked parking lot. "Hey, Hodgins."

He wiped his cheek with his hand quickly. "What do you want?"

"You can't be mad at those two, you know," Booth said calmly, coming to stand beside Jack.

"I'm not mad at them."

"No, you're mad at everything and taking it out on them."

Jack turned his head to look at him. "But it's _Angela_. Why don't they care?"

"They do care, they're just making themselves feel better by spouting off all that science-y stuff. Zach and Brennan are Squints. It's just their way of coping."

"Explain my behaviour then, Mr. Psychology."

Booth shrugged. "Squints react differently to different situations."

Jack sighed and looked back out at the parking lot. "There's nothing we can do."

"Not if you've got that attitude about it." Booth said, giving him a pointed look.

"Then what do you suggest?" Jack asked harshly, turning to Booth again.

"You're the hard-core rebel, remember? Just do anything that's not giving up."

"It's out of our hands. Do you expect me to just sit back and hope that those doctors in there don't make whatever's wrong with her worse?

Booth nodded. "Ya, Hodgins, have a little faith."

"So, let me guess, you want me to _pray_ for her?" Jack let out a noise like a laugh. "What good could that possibly do?"

Booth gave him a serious look. "It saved you and Bones, didn't it?"

* * *

When Jack and Booth rejoined the group, Brennan had taken Booth's seat between Cam and Zach, and had even allowed Cam to rest a hand on her thigh.

"Hodgins, I'm sorry if we offended you by thinking we don't care about Angela," Zach said awkwardly.

"It's okay," Jack assured him, "I wasn't thinking straight. Do we have any news yet?"

Zach shook his head and Cam answered, "No."

Booth gave Zach a pointed look, and nodded towards the seat next to him. Zach took the hint and moved a seat down, while Booth sat in the now-empty seat beside Brennan.

"Bones," he said softly, "Don't worry, Angela's going to be okay."

Brennan's voice was choked with tears when she responded. "Thank you, Booth, even though I know that's just one of the lines people say when someone's been injured or killed."

Zach turned from the partners to Jack, who had dropped himself into the seat on his other side. He was holding his head in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. Zach drew in a breath to talk.

"Zach, if you talk to me right now, there's a really good chance I'll yell at you, or maybe even hurt you, so I recommend keeping your mouth shut," Jack said sharply, his position unchanging.

There was silence among the group until a man in surgical scrubs approached them. Brennan was out of her chair first.

"Are you here with Ms. Montenegro?" The man's expression was nearly as grim as the five who were on their feet, looking to him for answers.

...To Be Continued...


End file.
